20 January 2009

Obama's Inauguration

Obama's team on climate change looks good. His ideas around opening up government through technology look good.

The New York Times says 53% of white voters in Alabama now have favourable views of Obama, compared with 17% before the election. That's stunning. Those kind of numbers come from Obama going out of his way, sometimes controversially (HRC, Rick Warren, Robert Gates), to build consensus. Only through building consensus will Obama build a coalition that agrees to wrenching change on "energy independence" and healthcare.

All the "Obama will be a historic President" commentary is hyperbole. Obama has to do things, and move the country his way, and then people can start talking like that. I mean, Bill Clinton began rendition, and he expanded the use of the death penalty, and it led to the kind of electorate that went for George Bush twice. Obama has to embed any changes that he makes, so that they persist after he leaves office, by the ballot or the bullet.